Patch 4.2: A Complete Guide to Stage One of the New Dailies

Patch 4.2 introduces a completely new daily quest hub and provides an excellent new direction for dailies. The only downside is that some of the quests are so enjoyable while others aren't half as cool; it creates a stark contrast of dailies that feel like fun and others that feel like a chore. Still, it's a lot better than other daily hubs of yesteryear and the rewards are much better. Our volunteers (Neutronimity and ArgentSun) plus myself have been doing the dailies every day, so we have a series of guides in the works for you!

The first stage of the Firelands Invasion serves as an introduction to the current events of Hyjal. The Guardians of Hyjal have made a call for all heroes to join them in their effort to protect Hyjal from Ragnaros' armies and to push the battle back to the Firelord's domain. Each stage of this effort in pushing them back becomes a stage of dailies to unlock. If your character hasn't completed the zone prior, you will first be asked to assist the four Ancients of Mount Hyjal. Only after this is done will you be able to join everybody else in their war against the Firelands.

As it's usual with PTR content, keep in mind that while there is a good chance that the content presented here will remain mostly unchanged on the live servers, it will probably not stay completely unchanged.

Introduction

The story so far is thus: After you pushed Ragnaros back to his home at the end of The Firelord, he didn't just slink back to his lair without a few bad feelings. So he made a couple of phone calls, chatted with his bosses (that's the Old Gods), and decided that he will have none of your defiance and that it is never too soon to assault Hyjal again. If he succeeds and burns the the World Tree Nordrassil, all of Azeroth will burn, and the planet will be destroyed. So Malfurion, Cenarion, Hamuul, and the rest of the superheroes of Azeroth decide to really kick it up a notch and defeat the Firelord once and for all--in his own house. You'll get none of the glory with these dailies, however; that will take place in the Firelands raid. Instead you'll be doing grunt work to help them and will be the one doing all of the reagent-collecting, enemy-killing, plan-thwarting, recruitment-doing, and so on.

For the first stage, you push back the armies of Ragnaros; for the second, you follow them in the Firelands and help Malfurion & co. establish a forward base there. The rest of the stages after focus on building up that established base. This guide will cover the first stage of quests.

Starting Quests

Here is the questline along with the introductory quest that you will need to go through before you unlock the first dailies quest hub--The Sanctuary of Malorne in the Regrowth zone of Hyjal:

For all intents and purposes, it's way better if you've done Hyjal and it will make the process smoother, so you should definitely do it now on live since you have a bit of time before 4.2 comes out. It's worth it--trust us.

You've got some cleaning up to do for this quest. The zone is being besieged by elementals that pour out of the portal and it's up to you to stop them. A bar will appear (similar to the ones from here and there) and it will fill up as you kill elementals. When it finally fills up, a druid of the flame hops out of the portal and try to kill you all dead. With Hamuul's and Malfurion's help you manage to defeat her. She runs away, taunting you about a next time.

Turns out your allies aren't as mighty as you are. Some of them have been caught in the open and are having a little bit of trouble fighting back the elementals Ragnaros so inconveniently sent when nobody was looking. Fly around the Regrowth and find Elderlimb, Thisalee Crow, and the eternally loyal friends Anren & Tholo. Your map should pinpoint their locations. All of them will likely be targets of active attacks of fire elementals, so it shouldn't take you long to kill six around each one of them.

Finally some serious help arrives! Back at the Sanctuary things are looking grim as wave after wave of fire elementals assault its few protectors. Fortunately for all of you, Malfurion is there, and it looks like he is trying to resurrect the Ancient Malorne, a demigod of formidable power, former consort of Elune herself, and father of Cenarius. You will need to protect the Archdruid for a few minutes, so the servants of Ragnaros don't interrupt his ritual. What is unfortunate for you is that the Firelord has sent the heavy artillery--Lord Rhyolith, one of the first fire elementals on Azeroth, and also a pretty powerful Firelands boss. You get lucky, however, and Malfurion manages to finish the ritual successfully and just in time. Malorne is revived and he quickly sends Ragnaros' crony back to his fiery home. The day is yours and so are the dailies.

Daily Quests

You will have access to three daily quests for the duration of this stage, and they will reward you with a total of 4 Mark of the World Tree. The new currency will be used mainly to unlock later stages of the Invasion and gain access to new vendors and rewards. You will need to complete Calling for Reinforcements in order to unlock the next stage.

Note that you should have received 8 Mark of the World Tree just from the quests. This should allow you to fly through this first phase of the invasion in only 3 days. You won't be so lucky in the next one.

Your first quest will always be one of the four Rage Against the Flames. For some reason the four versions of the quest are virtually identical, except for the number of elementals you need to kill--anywhere between 6 and 9. Keep in mind that any of the Firelands-bound enemies will count towards this quest: elementals, flamewalkers, core hounds, even named mobs. As long as they are in the Regrowth, you will get credit for the kills. This being said, you should always do your other quest first, since you might aggro a random mob there, and you don't want to end up killing more than you need to!

Help & Harm

The second quest you get will ask you to somehow aid one of the Ancients, including Malorne. You will get a random one each day, and as soon as you complete it, you will be able to remotely turn it in and accept its follow-up: to slay one of Ragnaros' commanders in the Regrowth. Here are your daily options:

Between the Trees & The Power of MalorneBase quest: you will need to fly over the Regrowth and look for shards of Malorne's spirit running around. They look like pale stags and run a little faster than you would on your ground mount. Best way to locate them would be to just fly high above the ground and look for them. When you see one, just dive with your mount and try to land on top of it or on its path. You will automatically collect the spirit fragment when it runs through you and it won't dismount you, so you can fly up even if you aggro a random flamewaker or elemental.

Follow-up: find the appropriate portal and summon Galenges with the staff Matoclaw gave you. For maximum effect, get your debuffs on the flamewaker, get your own buffs up, and then wait for Malorne to show up and hit Galenges with Antlers of Malorne. Then unload everything you've got. Malorne will appear every 20-ish seconds and weaken the flamewaker, so if you don't get him on the first weakening just wait for the next one.

Call the Flock & Wings AflameBase quest: you will need to go to the area north of the Sanctuary of Malorne and use the Quill of the Bird-Queen to turn yourself into a servant of Aviana (there are multiple models you can get, one of which is a harpy). As you fly around in avian form, you will need to Call the Flock near the three types of birds you need to gather. Each bird you get will give you a number of stacks of Soar based on the type of bird. Goldwing Hawks are large and can be found high above the ground; they also buff you with 15 stacks of Soar. Forest Owls are smaller and can be found flying closer to ground level, circling around the trees; they give you 5 stacks per. Alpine Songbirds are the smallest and can be found in small packs (I guess flocks) on the trees in the area; they are worth only 1 stack each.

Follow-up: simply go the portal, use the Quill to summon the fire hawk, and then kill it. She will try to fly away when low on health, but the flock you gathered will come soaring and finish her off.

Follow-up: find the appropriate portal in the Regrowth and use your Fang to summon Lylagar. Then whenever the core hound starts casting Lylagar's Breath, just move behind it. Profit!

Punting Season & Echoes of NemesisBase quest: here's what you need to do. Read carefully. First, you go to the lake north of the Sanctuary of Malorne. Then find some of the baby turtles there. Then kick the baby turtles in the lake! Really.

Follow-up: You done punting turtles? You sure? It's fun, you should go back and do it some more. But if you really are done, I suppose you can go and do some killing. This quest is a blast from the past--it's virtually identical to Finish Nemesis. You will need to go to the portal on the little island in that lake (you know, the one you kicked the baby turtles in?) and talk to Tooga there so that he can summon Nemesis. Fight him and make sure to hide under Tooga's magical shell when Nemesis' Molten Fury cast is about halfway through.

Those Bears Up There & Nature's BlessingBase quest: this is another quest you should remember from before--it's a copy of The Bears Up There. Go to one of the trees, jump on it using the ladder, grab a cub, get to the top and toss it on the trampoline. Jump down, rinse and repeat.

Follow-up: as usual, find the portal and use Emerald of Aessina to summon Pyrachnis. The lava spider will pretty much spam Boiling Poison Bolt that you can remove with the Emerald provided.

Comment by Knindza

Comment by Rainemard

I've been keeping notes on the quests to help with my friend when live hits... should've known you guys would be coming out with guides for us. =D

Comment by malsis

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 07:51:50 -0500

Ehhmm... I dunno.I've now played this game for more than 6 years and this doesn't sound a whole lot different than we got with Quel'danas.

I cancelled my account, but it doesn't run out till end of September. We'll see how this goes, but I'm not sure I can face another round of dailies.

I even tried Rift, got to 48 (max is 50) and pretty much lost interest. Guess I'm jsut done with MMOs, at least for the time being.

I still think this is an amazing game, though, especially for new players, I just think I've had enough.

Comment by Nulgar

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:00:01 -0500

*edit* aaah correction, I talked to other people in Hyjal, it seems is not herbalism-only after all, it's simply just another alternative to the Rage Against the Flames dailies (I suspect only one of those making it to Live)

Comment by Ashelia

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:52:30 -0500

It seems that players with gathering tradeskills (so, none of those premades) can be offered alternatives to Rage against the Flames, I'm a herbalist and I got twice by now.

Oh, that's neat to know! I have to min-max for raiding as do the other people at Wowhead, so we never get a chance to get those as we have other professions.

Comment by Interest

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 09:29:35 -0500

Hm, so should end up like the Isle eventually eh?

That seems to be the idea.

Comment by zw4512

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 09:36:19 -0500

Except that while the Isle was community based (everyone helping towards a global goal, everyone sharing the same point in progression regardless of input), this one seems to be individual based (everyone has their own goal, and progresses at their own speed).

Comment by shadowsilver

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 09:46:20 -0500

Malfurion is there, and it looks like he is trying to resurrect the Ancient Malorne, a demigod of formidable power, former consort of Elune herself, and father of Cenarius.

I didn't know that Malorne had been a consort to Elune, are you sure you didnt mean Ysera?.

In the War of the Ancients trilogy its hinted quite a bit that Cenarius is the son of the relationship between Malorne and Ysera.

Comment by Nulgar

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:11:41 -0500

I have to min-max for raiding as do the other people at Wowhead

Besides the redesigned (and farming herbs on a Taurendruid) I find that having a "farming" profession on your main to fit the other profession can improve your game experience to the point that it overcomes the minimal stat benefit of "raid professions" - you simply play with more enthusiasm :)

Comment by Nulgar

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 10:23:19 -0500

aaah correction, I talked to other people in Hyjal, it seems is not herbalism-only after all! *edit* Confirmed on one of my own alts as well.

Comment by lankybrit

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 11:13:07 -0500

Are these regular dailes that anyone can do, or do some of them require you to Raid?

Cheers.

Comment by Joejr82

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 11:32:43 -0500

They said that they want the new dailys to be very random, will they be random like current fishing/cooking. Or will they be random as in every person can get a random quest which in turns makes doing the dailys as a whole lot easier as in not every one on your server is trying to do the same thing as you?

Comment by ArgentSun

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 11:38:52 -0500

Very nicely done, and well put-together!

I've been keeping notes on the quests to help with my friend when live hits... should've known you guys would be coming out with guides for us. =D

We've got guides for the entire progression of the new daily quest hubs on the schedule. Only thing is, they are in a slightly less descriptive format, so I'll have to expand them a little bit. You should start seeing a guide every few days now though.

Malfurion is there, and it looks like he is trying to resurrect the Ancient Malorne, a demigod of formidable power, former consort of Elune herself, and father of Cenarius.

I didn't know that Malorne had been a consort to Elune, are you sure you didnt mean Ysera?.

In the War of the Ancients trilogy its hinted quite a bit that Cenarius is the son of the relationship between Malorne and Ysera.

I admit my War of the Ancients lore and everything before it is a little rusty. I do think that Matoclaw tells you something about Malorne having a relationship with the Moon Goddess, but I could be wrong here too.

Are these regular dailes that anyone can do, or do some of them require you to Raid?

Cheers.

All of the dailies are designed around solo play. When I say that you need to go to the Firelands to do this or that, I mean that you need to go to the Molten Front (which is a subzone of the Firelands, broadly speaking), not to the actual Firelands raid. Sorry for the confusion, but I blame Blizzard for now coming up with a better raid name :)

Comment by ArgentSun

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 11:40:59 -0500

They said that they want the new dailys to be very random, will they be random like current fishing/cooking. Or will they be random as in every person can get a random quest which in turns makes doing the dailys as a whole lot easier as in not every one on your server is trying to do the same thing as you?

My experience on the PTR is insufficient to answer this. I know I've seen other people on the same quest as me - especially during this stage. But I also know that the next stage is heavily phased, and I've seen very few people questing alongside me - so it's possible that we are all in different phases. I am going to guess that everyone gets the same quests on daily basis.

Comment by LostLunE

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:11:16 -0500

Ehhmm... I dunno.I've now played this game for more than 6 years and this doesn't sound a whole lot different than we got with Quel'danas.

I cancelled my account, but it doesn't run out till end of September. We'll see how this goes, but I'm not sure I can face another round of dailies.

I even tried Rift, got to 48 (max is 50) and pretty much lost interest. Guess I'm jsut done with MMOs, at least for the time being.

I still think this is an amazing game, though, especially for new players, I just think I've had enough.

ok bye ?

Comment by lankybrit

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:51:07 -0500

I'm looking forward to more dailies to help me with Guild Exp once I reach 85.

Cheers.

Comment by zeusnow

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:02:31 -0500

I remember reading somewhere that we will have to choose one of 2 factions in Hyjal who offer different quests, do you guys have any information about this?

Comment by Adamsm

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:05:43 -0500

I remember reading somewhere that we will have to choose one of 2 factions in Hyjal who offer different quests, do you guys have any information about this?

No longer happening.

Comment by Orranis

on Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:14:28 -0500

Malfurion is there, and it looks like he is trying to resurrect the Ancient Malorne, a demigod of formidable power, former consort of Elune herself, and father of Cenarius.

I didn't know that Malorne had been a consort to Elune, are you sure you didnt mean Ysera?.

In the War of the Ancients trilogy its hinted quite a bit that Cenarius is the son of the relationship between Malorne and Ysera.

I admit my War of the Ancients lore and everything before it is a little rusty. I do think that Matoclaw tells you something about Malorne having a relationship with the Moon Goddess, but I could be wrong here too.

No, you're correct. Cenarius is the son of Malorne and Elune, though he was raised by Ysera as an adoptive mother, so it's an easy mistake.